University Circle may be one of the most culturally and institutionally dense neighborhoods in Cleveland, but it’s one of the most beguiling to navigate.
Its streets curve or zigzag. Others are dangerous to cross. Parks and green spaces can feel like islands amid concrete and traffic. Attractions feel disconnected from each other.
This has long been obvious to Elise Yablonsky, the chief place management officer at University Circle Inc. and the brains behind a master plan that could bring the Circle’s walkability factor into the 21st century.
Cleveland’s Planning Commission agreed on Friday afternoon, when it gave a unanimous thumbs up to UCI’s new master plan.
Over 15 months, Yablonsky and her team heard feedback at 15 public events and almost a thousand comments from an online survey.
That feedback that was unanimous: We love University Circle, but it’s in dire need of a design upgrade.
“What we heard time and time again is the Circle is indeed home to treasured gems, but the experience of getting to them, or trying to move between them, is often difficult to navigate,” Yablonsky said during Friday’s meeting. “Sometimes dangerous.”
“Connecting The Circle,” a $750,000 study and proposal, aims to change that.
It would better link together five “spines” of University Circle, including new street infrastructure and traffic-calming measures.
Euclid Avenue and East 105th, for example, needs a safer intersection, which could be accomlished with street painting and an actual park instead of an isolated median. The same goes for what is dubbed South Rockefeller, which could use new seats, lighting, trails and recreation areas—making it a “true public space,” the plan says.
Wade Oval, the “civic heart” of the Circle, should be remade as a “preserved central green” more so than a lawn with space for the occasional festival. A multi-purpose pavilion, surrounding by restrooms and restaurants, could help liven up the Circle’s largest park on a consistent basis.
And lastly, the Harrison Dillard Trail, the oldest bikeway in Cleveland that runs from Gordon Park to University Circle’s southern edge, simply needs more Harrison Dillard. Meaning more signage that publicizes the trail’s namesake, the Cleveland-born Black track and field star once dubbed the “World’s Fastest Man.”
“We don’t tell the full history yet of University Circle,” Yablonsky told the CPC, “particularly of our Black history.”
Commissioners August Fluker and Andrew Sargeant agreed in the comment portion: University Circle is surrounded by majority Black neighborhoods and Black history, and the Circle should do a better job of capturing and reflecting that fact.
Yablonsky said her team consulted with ThirdSpace, a Black-led literary arts nonprofit off East 105th, which helped illuminate some of the Circle’s Black past. Just as “how we might remedy it for the future,” she said.
Overall, the plan is one dedicated to making University Circle one both safe and inviting for the public.
The Planning Commission agreed.
“We in Cleveland have a big problem with treating public spaces that are passive spaces that are utilitized versus programmed,” Fluker said. “However, I think there’s an opportunity for UCI, because you have the ingredients. You have people.”
Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
